ResourceSM OU ULTRA Cores

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uh-oh, the game in trouble

Went through and cleaned up many of the cores - we focused on deleting the bad ones rather than adding new ones, as we'd like these cores, to, y'know be Good Cores.

This means we are definitely missing cores, so feel free to contribute Good Cores that synergize well and have top metagame threats over the next few days - we'll be watching it closely as we update the thread the next few days.

Speaking of 'we', the lovely Eternam will be my cohost for this thread going forward.

Finally, and the biggest point, we have included SAMPLE sets for all the cores; you can click the name to find the samples.

Keep in mind these are SAMPLES - there are certainly other sets you can run on these cores. Because this thread is very much in a transitional state during this week, please hold back on giving feedback in this thread on the sample sets. Thanks for your cooperation.

This balanced core focuses on Kartana's ability to break through bulkier - and sometimes offensive - teams. Ferrothorn is able to provide stellar support to Kartana, by providing it with fantastic utility in the form of Spikes, Leech Seed and Knock Off (to name a few). The former gives Kartana more breathing room to sweep / wallbreak whilst the latter cripples certain Kartana checks, including the likes of Celesteela and Zapdos. Ferrothorn also provides useful defensive utility against faster 'mons such as Tapu Koko, Ash Gren and Mega Latios, which would otherwise OHKO Kartana thanks to its poor special defense.

These two work phenomenally well together when they pressure their shared checks. Ash-Gren sets down the Spikes and racks up chip damage with Dark Pulse. Meanwhile, Tapu Koko's Hidden Power Fire blasts a hole through Ferrothorn, and +1 Twinkle Tackle does a massive amount of damage to AV Tapu Bulu and Tangrowth, especially after Spikes.

Magnezone + Kartana is a potent core that aims to remove problem Pokemon for non-Fightinium Kartana, namely Celesteela, Mega Scizor, and Skarmory (albeit more rarely in the case of the latter), as well as providing a buffer versus opposing Kartana if Magnezone opts to run Scarf. I don't really need to go into much more detail on this 'cuz the core's super self-explanatory, so I'll save you the reading time.

Latias is a nice partner for Volcarona as it provides Healing Wish support, which is valuable as it means that the Volcarona player can be reckless early- and mid-game, allowing it to break while taking hits without worrying about being unable to clean up later. In addition, Latias provides Defog utility, which is important for any Volcarona team for what should be obvious reasons. Finally, it is able to function as a pretty decent means of weakening Heatran if it carries Surf/EQ, being able to switch into it early-game to boot thanks to its typing+good natural special bulk. Volcarona also uses common Latias switch-ins like Gears/Celest/Scizor for setup fodder and can one-shot even SR Mega Tyranitar unboosted after Stealth Rock if it carries Buginium. All in all, nice core; generally would recommend just sticking to dual STABs on Latias but am just listing Surf/EQ for the sake of covering all bases.

Stealth Rock is an option over Protect on Jirachi that offers even more utility but comes at the cost of some of Jirachi's longevity. I don't recommend using it unless you're using this core on an offensive team that doesn't need to keep Jirachi alive as long and/or doesn't have many other options for Stealth Rockers.

Rotom+Jirachi is amazing support for teams that appreciate having WishPass, bulky pivots, and/or a consistent Defogger. Jirachi covers Rotom's main issue, it's lack of reliable recovery, as well as forming a VoltTurn core, in addition to having pretty great defensive synergy with Rotom too. Rotom can eat most Fire and Ground type attacks that bother Jirachi and Jirachi can take most relevant Grass attacks for Rotom. Will-O-Wisp cripples alot of switch-ins to both Pokemon, such as Zygarde, Mega Lopunny, and Mega Medicham. This core doesn't do much offensively, as it is built to support the rest of your teammates, but it can pretty easily check some common offensive threats like Landorus-T and Tapu Lele. Because of this, you obviously need an offensive presence. Some great partners for this are Mega Pinsir, which appreciates the slow pivoting, WishPass, and most importantly, having a consistent Defogger, Offensive Landorus-T (either Flyinium or Rockinium, depends on the team) to provide Stealth Rock support and lure threats to this core and it's teammates, and Tapu Bulu, which provides even more passive recovery and tones down Earthquake damage to Jirachi, and appreciates WishPass.

TLDR: This core provides amazing support for offensive and balanced teams alike and has great defensive synergy.

Hi all, greetings from RU. I like building in OU and w/ the popularity of Lucha+Tapu, Mega Cham, and Kartana, I wanted to try out Doublade since it'll beat any Lucha/Mega Cham set and beat most Kartana sets (albiet we don't like getting knocked, so this is mostly a scarf check). I'm familiar with Doublade from RU, so I know the things it dislikes most are its lack of recovery, hazards, and getting knocked. Mega Sableye handles Knock Offs + Hazards + most special hits, and in turn enjoys having a solid check for physical attackers like the ones listed above + stuff like Bulu + Scarf Lele. CM Lele kinda rips this core apart, Bulu helps remedy that w/ checking most Lele sets while giving Doublade some passive recovery + another Knock switch in, in a pinch.

Its not hard to see why these two function well together. Grassy Terrain is great under bulky Mega-Tyrantiar, halving Earthquake damage, which is particularly great with a spread of 248 HP / 84 Atk / 68 Def / 64 SpA / 12 SpD / 32 Spe and Sassy to OHKO Defensive Landorus-T with Ice Beam, this spread can also take a Kartana Sacred Sword and Alakazam Focus Blast, while these two are checked by Bulu anyway, it gives an idea of the bulk we playing with here. Passive recovery also works really well, particularly as this spread has crazy bulk and is a reliable rocks setter, threatening a lot of Defoggers who fear a Stone Edge and Pursuit trapping them, any Tyranitar appreciates recovery though. In general Dark STAB is just really spammable; the standard Fire Punch variant also works really well to hit steel types if you don’t want to take Superpower on Tapu Bulu. The two have good type synergy too, resisting the others quad weakness, with Bulu also covering Water, Ground and Grass types (notably Ash-Greninja and Kartana lacking Smart Strike), and Tyranitar putting in work against Flying and Fire-types (notably Heatran and Z-Fly Landorus). As with a lot of cores Magnezone pairs nicely to make the Steel matchup a lot better, frees Tyranitar to run Ice Beam and Tapu Bulu to potentially run Stone Edge. This core is pretty customisable, almost any T-tar/Bulu set would work together, in my opinion these two sets go well best together.​

Its not hard to see why these two function well together. Grassy Terrain is great under bulky Mega-Tyrantiar, halving Earthquake damage, which is particularly great with a spread of 248 HP / 84 Atk / 68 Def / 64 SpA / 12 SpD / 32 Spe and Sassy to OHKO Defensive Landorus-T with Ice Beam, this spread can also take a Kartana Sacred Sword and Alakazam Focus Blast, while these two are checked by Bulu anyway, it gives an idea of the bulk we playing with here. Passive recovery also works really well, particularly as this spread has crazy bulk and is a reliable rocks setter, threatening a lot of Defoggers who fear a Stone Edge and Pursuit trapping them, any Tyranitar appreciates recovery though. In general Dark STAB is just really spammable; the standard Fire Punch variant also works really well to hit steel types if you don’t want to take Superpower on Tapu Bulu. The two have good type synergy too, resisting the others quad weakness, with Bulu also covering Water, Ground and Grass types (notably Ash-Greninja and Kartana lacking Smart Strike), and Tyranitar putting in work against Flying and Fire-types (notably Heatran and Z-Fly Landorus). As with a lot of cores Magnezone pairs nicely to make the Steel matchup a lot better, frees Tyranitar to run Ice Beam and Tapu Bulu to potentially run Stone Edge. This core is pretty customisable, almost any T-tar/Bulu set would work together, in my opinion these two sets go well best together.​

maybe this is heaven

a cool balance core comprised of 2 self-sufficient win conditions. gliscor finds switchin opportunities vs scizor checks like heatran and toxapex. it also knocks off defensive pivots like landorus-t, zapdos, and celesteela which makes it easier for scizor to wear them down. scizor handles stuff like tapu bulu, tangrowth, and weavile.​

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this one's pretty simple. magnezone traps steels like celesteela, scizor, and kartana to make gliscor's life easier. there's really not much more to it than that. the only other thing i can think of is that gliscor happens to be a pretty good check to grounds like landorus-t and zygarde, so you usually don't get punished too badly for locking magnezone into stuff like thunderbolt or hp fire which can be nice in some situations, i guess.​

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mew is a pretty sturdy stealth rocker. gliscor pairs nicely with its ability to soak up knock off or toxic from stuff like tornadus-t, heatran, clefable etc. mew's volt/uturn can easily be will-o-wisp if you don't want to run 2 attacks. i personally find myself to be using this core most often on bulky offense where i'd rather have mew grabbing momentum to bring in a wallbreaker like weavile or medicham, but that's really just personal preference. gliscor could even run a defog set here and that would work out fine.​

gastrodon is a pretty good pokemon right now so I'll post some defensive cores with it

heatran is a great stealth rocker that loves coming in into most grass types that are generally gastrodon's switchins so it can setup sr and annoy the opposite team with magma storm. it also checks other stuff like tapu lele, m-scizor, clefable and toxapex while gastrodon takes on things like tapu koko and greninja.

quite similar to heatran + gastrodon, celesteela and gastrodon work well together as celesteela finds a lot of opportunities to start annoy things with leech seed + protect against gastrodon's answers like tapu bulu and ferrothorn since it force out them, while gastrodon can take on things like heatran, tapu koko, zapdos, magearna, etc. it can also toxic the likes of tangrowth so it's easier to wear them down with celesteela.

Lures are getting famous, right? So why not a tran lure. Volcarona w/o HP ground is walled by tran, which steela takes care of while providing a switch in to mega pinsir / etc. Steela invites magnezone too which is a set Up Fodder for volcarona, most Celesteela answers can't stand a chance vs Volcarona, so it works out. Thanks for reading. Celesteela can also use lefties trading for a mind game vs opposing trans.

Recently, Latios-Mega is a really good Pokémon, beating most common cores including Toxapex, Heatran, etc.. while still breaking throught Magearna, Tyranitar and other stuffs. By sacrifiing Draco Meteor for Hidden Power Fire it can lure to knock out or weaken enought common Kartana walls like Scizor-Mega or Ferrothorn to let it sweep.
Thunderbolt can be played instead to weaken Celesteela, having a high chance to 2HKO it, and Skarmory, less common yet. If you decide to run Thunderbolt, I think Grassium Z is the best Z-Move to use because Thunderbolt + +2 Sacred Sword beats standard Celesteela, not taking Leftovers into account.
Of course, +2 Z-Sacred Sword beats these threads but it permit to keep it for an other Pokémon, and permits to sweep even if there are two threads to Kartana, as long as one is weakened.
Magnezone can still be run with this core, but you should run Draco Meteor on Latios then. Choice Scarf Kartana can be run too.

Like I said in the previous core, Latios-Mega is a very good Pokémon at the moment, and Hidden Power Fire + Earthquake is a good lure to help some Pokémon, and Reuniclus belongs in this category of Pokémon. Latios-Mega beats common Reuniclus counters like Scizor-Mega or Tyranitar, 2HKOing it with Earthquake after one Stealth Rock. And even if Tyranitar does not die, for instance if it wears the Tyranitarite, giving to it a huge bulk, enought to lives after two Earthquakes, it is now in range of Signal Beam, which permits to Reuniclus to beat Hoopa-Unbound, which is a thread to this Psychic Spam core. Latios does not need to weaken Celesteela for Reuniclus because it can not disturb Reuniclus. This is true for Ferrothorn too.

Banned deucer.

So, what does Doublade suffer from? Special attack weakness, mainly losing to ash ninja, and dislike knock offs. Tyranitar and Gastrodon attempt to remedy both of those things, while helping check the stuff that threatens them like Tapu Bulu, Kartana, Hawlucha, etc. Overall it's a unique and fun core, I recommend you try building with it :)

So, what does Doublade suffer from? Special attack weakness, mainly losing to ash ninja, and dislike knock offs. Tyranitar and Gastrodon attempt to remedy both of those things, while helping check the stuff that threatens them like Tapu Bulu, Kartana, Hawlucha, etc. Overall it's a unique and fun core, I recommend you try building with it :)

Looks like a rly fun core but I think that rocks mega tar would work better with this core instead of Z move ttar as it offers more defensive utility in general(the spread ur using is for rocks mega tar btw, not reg tar).

So, what does Doublade suffer from? Special attack weakness, mainly losing to ash ninja, and dislike knock offs. Tyranitar and Gastrodon attempt to remedy both of those things, while helping check the stuff that threatens them like Tapu Bulu, Kartana, Hawlucha, etc. Overall it's a unique and fun core, I recommend you try building with it :)

remove the spaces in the hide tag lol. i don't think non-ranked mons will be added to cores. The balance replay is very bad, you only KO two Pokemon, the dude keeps Magnezone in against Mega-Latios for some reason and he hard switches Latias into Ttar wtf. Also Shedinja/Slowbro/Tornadus stall is horrific, the dude played so badly, and you lose in the other replay so I don't really see why you bothered to post them at all.

Banned deucer.

Looks like a rly fun core but I think that rocks mega tar would work better with this core instead of Z move ttar as it offers more defensive utility in general(the spread ur using is for rocks mega tar btw, not reg tar).

remove the spaces in the hide tag lol. i don't think non-ranked mons will be added to cores. The balance replay is very bad, you only KO two Pokemon, the dude keeps Magnezone in against Mega-Latios for some reason and he hard switches Latias into Ttar wtf. Also Shedinja/Slowbro/Tornadus stall is horrific, the dude played so badly, and you lose in the other replay so I don't really see why you bothered to post them at all.

Gastrodon has been rising in usage due to its ability to check a ton of common threats, namely Tapu Koko, Zapdos Magearna, Greninja, Mega Latios, and Heatran. Gastrodon can handle Fire- and Electric- types that annoy Celesteela, and in return, Celesteela handles Grass- and stronger physical attackers that threaten Gastrodon. Celesteela is also immune to Toxic, which is the easiest way to cripple Gastrodon. You're going to want a way to handle TSpikes in order to not cripple Gastrodon as well as anything that can setup behind a sub (MLatias, Zygarde, & so on).

Gastrodon has been rising in usage due to its ability to check a ton of common threats, namely Tapu Koko, Zapdos Magearna, Greninja, Mega Latios, and Heatran. Gastrodon can handle Fire- and Electric- types that annoy Celesteela, and in return, Celesteela handles Grass- and stronger physical attackers that threaten Gastrodon. Celesteela is also immune to Toxic, which is the easiest way to cripple Gastrodon. You're going to want a way to handle TSpikes in order to not cripple Gastrodon as well as anything that can setup behind a sub (MLatias, Zygarde, & so on).

Overview: This is a pretty good core that finds its way into most of my recent teams; Tapu Bulu takes on so many annoying special attackers such as Tapu Lele, Ash-Greninja, and Tapu Koko all in one slot whereas Zapdos covers the threatening Hawlucha, Mega Pinsir, and countless other physical attackers. It is by no means the best core out there, and it does require at least one more partner to round things off, which leads me to my next topic.

Team Options: Heatran is a great pick as an excellent method to deal with Fire-types that can pose a threat for only the aforementioned two, and we all know how great its synergy with Tapu Bulu is. Something for Tyranitar such as Hippowdon is also a great idea. Vincine also fits very well with these two, appreciating the support from Tapu Bulu and being a solid win-condition that synergizes quite well with both Tapu Bulu and Zapdos.

I figured I would post a core with the newly ranked Golem-Alola. In this core, it is paired with Eject Button Toxapex which is here to help Golem to trap Steel-Types. It can come in on Magearna's Volt Switch, Heatran's Magma Storm or M-Scizor's U-turn for example, and eject button out into A-Golem to claim a kill. Similarly to Magnezone, this core is best paired with pokemons that appreciate Steel-Types removed such as M-Latios, Tapu Lele and Tapu Bulu.

I also wanted to post a core with Staraptor which newly got ranked. This core is pretty self-explanatory: Choice Scarf Staraptor is a pretty strong wallbreaker with its strong STABs in Brave Bird and Double-Edge which really appreciates Magnezone's ability to trap and eliminate Steel-Types. They also form an effective Volt-Turn core with Staraptor being abe to let Magnezone in on Steel-Types thanks to U-Turn.

Tornadus-Therian and Gliscor form a pretty potent core which is seen very frequently on Balance builds (mostly hazard stack ones). SD Gliscor is a very dangerous breaker, pretty effective at breaking through common balance cores such as Clefable + Ferrothorn (+ Heatran) and also offers defensive utility in switching pretty comfortably on pokemons like Lefties Heatran, Tyranitar, Landorus-T and non Ice-Punch M-Mawile. Gliscor really appreciates Tornadus' ability to pivot and let it in against pokemons like Heatran, as well as its ability to cripple mons with Knock Off and remove hazards when they become too annoying. This core fits very well on hazard stack teams as it's easier for Gliscor to break with hazard support. They also appreciate trappers like Weavile and Tyranitar to trap things like opposing Tornadus-T, Lati@s, Zapdos and M-Medicham.

This is, again, a pretty simple and self-explanatory core. Tornadus-T and Amoonguss form a Regen core which is pretty cool to maintain the team's longevity. They also offer a pretty good type synergy as Amoonguss can take on Electric Types like Tapu Koko which Tornadus-T dislikes, and Tornadus-T can take on things like Landorus-T, M-Pinsir and Gliscor to an extent. A possible option is Toxic on Tornadus-T which cripples pokemons like M-Latias, Gastrodon and Zapdos.

Banned deucer.

here's another really good Balanced core I've been messing with, once again featuring Doublade :). This isn't just a gimick, this core has faced up really well against lots of OU threats and I really hope it lets people see the real versatility of Doublade in OU.

Doublade acts as this team's Kartana/Lucha/Bulu and a soft Lele check, check while providing utility to the core with its great movepool to cripple switch ins/switch outs via toxic/pursuit/sacred sword. Nidoqueen is our Koko/Clefable check, being able to comfortably live any attack from it and OHKO it back with Ice Beam with the EV's provided. It additionally acts as our Scizor check and a soft Kartana check should Doublade get weakened while additionally beating Zapdos should you opt to run EP instead. Altaria acts as our Ground immunity and Heatran + Zard X/Y checkcheck, in addition to acting as a Knock Off switch in and an additional Kartana check. You can potentially run Swords Dance on Doublade to use it as an additional win and also check Sub + Bulk Up Lucha, but I think these moves work best with the core at a start; you can teambuild to remove one of them. Roar also works on Nidoqueen and helps a bit in the Screens match up.

LMK what you think, dOUblade is good :3.
here's some replays of the core in work, I hadn't switched to Flamethrower yet sadly.

Being fat balance builds so common right now, this core is a really good representation of the state of the metagame and the playstyle. This three guys have insane type sinergy, offensive and defensively, and together form a fantasy core of Fairy-Steel-Dragon. First member is Clefable, in its most common fashion right now: Wish Passer and Rock Setter, all we know what this mon is doing in the metagame checking dangerous shit like M-Medicham and Zygarde, annoyances for Heatran. Next member is Heatran in its offensive stallbreaker side: Firium Z + Toxic/Taunt breaks almost any variant of stall lacking Gliscor, and still provides great defensive value checking some Tapu Lele and Magearna sets, also checks M-Scizor, Ferrothorn and Celesteela, common annoyances for Clef and M-Lati, and the shit that allows the core run such Heatran set is the great Wish support from Clefable. Finally, CM Stored Power M-Latias provides a pretty strong wincon and also a check for things like Keldeo, Focus Blast M-Charizard Y, Landorus-T and Gliscor, while also taking advantage of Heatran's breaking power to clean up games with CM. Strong core, which shows us the stage of the metagame and the power of balance right now.

A minor nitpick is the fact that Roost+3 moves M-Latias also works here, but I feel CM Stored Power is threatening as hell if you don't have a strong counter like Ttar.

Mega Slowbro is pretty anti-meta right now and is a really good partner with Heatran. Mega Slowbro takes on many of the Pokemon that Heatran is weak to such as Landorus-T, Zygarde, Mega Medicham, and Hawlucha, to name a few notable ones. In return, Heatran helps a lot with Grass-types like Tapu Bulu, Tangrowth, and Amoonguss which Mega Slowbro struggles against. It's also nice for Steel-types that can pressure Mega Slowbro like Ferrothorn and Magearna. Pair this core with a Grass-type like Amoonguss, Ferrothorn, or Tapu Bulu to help against Ash-Greninja and Tapu Koko and this core can easily shine.